A cookbook with dishes of the Pacific including Fiji has won the Best Cookbook in the World for 2010 at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards held in Paris last week. The Book has also won the Best Foreign Book award and was written by New Zealand born chef, Robert Oliver who grew up in Fiji.

In order to secure the win, Me'a Kai beat off stiff competition from NOMA which is one of the most talked about cookbooks of the year and the New York Times Cookbook. The Publisher of Randon House New Zealand Nicola Legat said that  this win is been quite remarkable as this book has been hailed as a breakthrough in the Pacific and of which local people are proud of.

The book named Me'a Kai which has the Food and Flavors of the South Pacific has been written by Oliver with the assistance of New Zealand academic Dr Tracy Berno and well-known Fiji photographer Shiri Ram.

Two years ago, Robert Oliver came to Fiji, to rediscover the art of Pacific cooking. He traveled to Tonga, Niue, Tahiti, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands to track down the most skilled local cooks. The Cookbook offers more than 90 recipes accompanied by photos taken by Shiri Ram which captures the essence of the Pacific.

The book celebrates six South Pacific nations, their culture, cooking and traditions brings together the "farm to the table", and is a major boost for Pacific cuisine. Robert Oliver attended Suva Grammar School in the late 1970s and one of his schoolmates was former Vice President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi.